1. Field of Technology
The present disclosure relates to equipment and techniques for melting metals and metallic alloys (hereinafter “alloys”). The present disclosure more specifically relates to equipment and techniques utilizing electrons to melt or heat alloys and/or condensate formed within the melted alloys.
2. Description of the Background of the Technology
An alloy melting process involves preparing a charge of suitable materials and then melting the charge. The molten charge or “melt” may then be refined and/or treated to modify melt chemistry, remove undesirable components from the melt, and/or affect the microstructure of articles cast from the melt. Melting furnaces are powered either by electricity or by the combustion of fossil fuels, and selection of a suitable apparatus is largely influenced by the relative costs and applicable environmental regulations, as well as by the identity of the material being prepared. A variety of melting techniques and apparatus are available today. General classes of melting techniques include, for example, induction melting (including vacuum induction melting), arc melting (including vacuum arc skull melting), crucible melting, and electron beam melting.
Electron beam melting typically involves utilizing thermo-ionic electron beam guns to generate high energy substantially linear streams of electrons which are used to heat the target materials. Thermo-ionic electron beam guns operate by passing current to a filament, thereby heating the filament to high temperature and “boiling” electrons away from the filament. The electrons generated from the filament are then focused and accelerated toward the target in the form of a very narrow, substantially linear electron beam. A type of ion plasma electron beam gun also has been used for preparing alloy melts. Specifically, a “glow discharge” electron beam gun described in V. A. Chernov, “Powerful High-Voltage Glow Discharge Electron Gun and Power Unit on Its Base”, 1994 Intern. Conf. on Electron Beam Melting (Reno, Nev.), pp. 259-267, has been incorporated in certain melting furnaces available from Antares, Kiev, Ukraine. Such devices operate by producing a cold plasma including cations which bombard a cathode and produce electrons that are focused to form a substantially linear electron beam.
The substantially linear electron beams produced by the foregoing types of electron beam guns are directed into the evacuated melting chamber of an electron beam melting furnace and impinged on the materials to be melted and/or maintained in a molten state. The conduction of electrons through the electrically conductive materials quickly heats them to a temperature in excess of the particular melting temperature. Given the high energy of the substantially linear electron beams, which may be, for example, about 100 kW/cm2, linear electron beam guns are very high temperature heat sources and are readily able to exceed the melting and, in some cases, the vaporization temperatures of the materials on which the substantially linear beams impinge. Using magnetic deflection or similar directional means, the substantially linear electron beams are rastered at high frequency across the target materials within the melting chamber, allowing the beam to be directed across a wide area and across targets having multiple and complex shapes.
Because electron beam melting is a surface heating method, it typically produces only a shallow molten pool, which may be advantageous in terms of limiting porosity and segregation in the cast ingot. Because the superheated metal pool produced by the electron beam is disposed within the high vacuum environment of the furnace melting chamber, the technique also beneficially tends to degas the molten material. Also, undesirable metallic and non-metallic constituents within the alloy having relatively high vapor pressures may be selectively evaporated in the melting chamber, thereby improving alloy purity. On the other hand, one must account for the evaporation of desirable constituents produced by the highly-focused substantially linear electron beam. Undesirable evaporation must be factored into production and may significantly complicate alloy production when using electron beam melting furnaces.
Various melting and refining methods involve the electron beam melting of feed stocks using thermo-ionic electron guns. Drip melting is a classic method used in thermo-ionic electron beam gun melting furnaces for processing refractory metals such as, for example, tantalum and niobium. Raw material in the form of a bar is typically fed into the furnace chamber and a linear electron beam focused on the bar drip-melts the material directly into a static or withdrawal mold. When casting in a withdrawal mold, the liquid pool level is maintained on the top of the growing ingot by withdrawing the ingot bottom. The feed material is refined as a result of the degassing and selective evaporation phenomena described above.
The electron beam cold hearth melting technique is commonly used in the processing and recycling of reactive metals and alloys. The feedstock is drip melted by impinging a substantially linear electron beam on an end of a feedstock bar. The melted feedstock drips into an end region of a water-cooled copper hearth, forming a protective skull. As the molten material collects in the hearth, it overflows and falls by gravity into a withdrawal mold or other casting device. During the molten material's dwell time within the hearth, substantially linear electron beams are quickly rastered across the surface of the material, retaining it in a molten form. This also has the effects of degassing and refining the molten material through evaporation of high vapor pressure components. The hearth also may be sized to promote gravity separation between high-density and low-density solid inclusions, in which case oxide and other relatively low-density inclusions remain in the molten metal for a time sufficient to allow dissolution while high density particles sink to the bottom and become trapped in the skull.
Given the various benefits of conventional electron beam melting techniques, it would be advantageous to further improve this technology.